back to article Suppressed data on mutant H5N1 human-killer virus PUBLISHED

Strains of bird flu that could spread among humans have been created in the lab - and now full details on just how this was done have been published openly, raising fears that the research could be used by terrorists to craft a deadly bio-weapon plague. Bird flu, or H5N1, has killed more than half of the 600 people it is known …

COMMENTS

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  1. Martin Huizing
    Thumb Up

    Have you ever seen a virus up close?

    They are nasty little buggers and some even look like robots. (Yeah, I'm looking at you -T4 Bacteriophage!)

    I say the more we get to know about these alien looking creatures, the better.

    Science rules!

    1. heyrick Silver badge

      Re: Have you ever seen a virus up close?

      That's because they are robots...from another planet...not here to kill us, exactly, as that would leave a mess to clean up, but rather to make us all nice and compliant for when the time comes for their creators to land on this planet and engage in widespread practice of naughty tentacles...

      1. Gordon 10

        Re: Have you ever seen a virus up close?

        Have you read Everfree by Nick Sagan (son of Carl) perchance?

      2. Yesnomaybe

        Re: Have you ever seen a virus up close?

        ".......but rather to make us all nice and compliant....." Speaking for myself, I get crabby as hell when I have a cold.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    this report

    is nothing to sneeze at

  3. Steve Renouf
    Headmaster

    Transmissible?

    ...and they also invented a new word - replacing transmittable in the English language perhaps!

    1. frank ly

      Re: Transmissible?

      Let's see: admit/permit/submit//transmit, admission/permission/submission/transmission, admissible/permissible/submissible/transmissible.

      What is the problem?

      1. frank ly

        Re: Transmissible?

        I forgot 'inter--'. (Though intermissible has not been seen, it is thought that the LHC might detect it when they turn the dial up to full power)

  4. Xris M
    Headmaster

    @Transmissible

    Thankfully for them lots of other people have invented it too.

  5. Inachu
    IT Angle

    If nobody has read the indepth news on the original bird flu....

    FYI,

    If nobody has read the indepth news on the original bird flu cure in which many said there was no cure did not do their research!

    Researchers have found that eating KIMCHI will kill off the virus when eating large amounts.

    1. xperroni
      Mushroom

      Re: Might as well let the flu kill them

      Researchers have found that eating KIMCHI will kill off the virus when eating large amounts.

      Of course, eating "large amounts" of kimchi will kill any mammal of size up to and including a grizzly bear, so it's hardly a solution.

    2. Fibbles

      Re: If nobody has read the indepth news on the original bird flu....

      The researchers found that it strengthened the immune systems of chickens infected with bird flu. This is not really surprising considering it's rich in vitamins but it's hardly the same as 'killing off the virus'. Eating large amounts of Kimchi also increases the risk of gastric cancer in humans*.

      *Tbh though, what doesn't these days?

    3. Don Jefe

      Re: If nobody has read the indepth news on the original bird flu....

      No.

  6. NomNomNom

    viruses are vulnerable to explosives

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Actually there's a simpler method

    Locate the genes that carry the cell membrane surface proteins HxNx attaches to and silence them with RNA antisense therapy adminstered using a weakened mouse retrovirus.

    Problem = obliterated.

    No protein target = no H5N1, H1N1, etc.

    AC/DC

  8. Lghost
    WTF?

    why is the address bar url showing "h4n1_flu_study_published"

    if the article is about H5N1 ?

    1. Sir Runcible Spoon

      Re: why is the address bar url showing "h4n1_flu_study_published"

      The header mutated

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Holmes

    Pandemic?

    Is 600 people a pandemic?

  10. Don Jefe
    Meh

    Politics

    My wife was directly involved with this mess. She was on the jury that reviewed the original research. According to her these findings were never a threat and akin to North Korea successfully launching a ballistic missile: Not going to happen and should someone want to use it, there is a lot more dangerous info published on a daily basis that doesn't require a laboratory to make happen.

    The science advisory board (which most people had never heard of before this issue came up) went in pushing their weight around and trying to score points on 'terrorism' for future funding.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wouldn't it be a lot easier for terrorists to smuggle in some meat contaminated with something nasty that is commonplace in their own country (e.g. foot and mouth, indigenous in parts of Asia and Africa) and then feed the meat to some British livestock e.g. pigs?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Probably not...

      I doubt that would work, in anything except a very small sense. Our food is carefully checked and traced throughout the chain, any contamination would likely not even make it past the farm, let alone the slaughterhouse. In the highly unlikely event that contaminated food made it to the supermarkets, very well defined and rehearsed recall procedures would kick in.

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